


Christmas Cards

by Y99NG



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Cards, Established Relationship, Idiots in Love, Kisses, Lipstick, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, happy holidays, it comes up i promise, jaemin is a bit petty, kind of fluffy maybe, lots of teasing, mischievous nomin, old family traditions, renjun works as a mall elf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:14:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28225971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Y99NG/pseuds/Y99NG
Summary: Renjun was adamant about getting their pictures taken for the Christmas cards. Jeno and Jaemin just couldn't understand but decided to humor him anyway......"What are we going to dress up as for our Christmas cards?""Christmas cards?""Dress up?"Renjun looked at his boyfriends' confused faces and snorted, "I can't believe you thought I'd let our third Christmas together pass by with just my crafts again. You two need to step up and share the responsibility, and this time we're taking Christmas themed pictures at the mall!"
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin
Kudos: 40





	Christmas Cards

If there was one thing people needed to know about Huang Renjun, it was that he was stubborn. Extremely hard-headed, always knew what he wanted and smart enough to come up with ways to get it without having to sacrifice the things he held the most important. 

Not that Jaemin wasn't just as insistent – he was just so smitten that it was easy to convince him to do things he never planned to do, if you just threw in a bit of grease, a few little confessions of undying love, and countless promises of never-ending attention.

Jeno was like a bystander when it came to them two going back and forth, having a tug-of-war with their opinions and plans, too busy watching the two go at it to realize maybe he was the worst out of them all when it came to being persistent.

Jaemin, unsurprisingly, was the one to relent first in just a matter of minutes (depending on how many cups of coffee he'd already had that day), but when Jeno had an opinion about something, he usually stuck by it no matter how pretty eyes and pouty lips Jaemin had pulled, or no matter what deals Renjun had come up with in order to get him to cooperate.

So it wasn't really that surprising that when Renjun insisted they take the Christmas card pictures in the mall, it was met with a hard no. 

"I'm not doing a single Christmas card alone at 3 a.m. while you two just sign it off the next morning and put a stamp on it as if you've actually accomplished something," Renjun argued. 

"I guess we're not sending any Christmas cards this year then," Jeno concluded with a sigh, mentally preparing himself for the shitstorm his family and friends would give him for breaking off the tradition that had been going on since like forever. 

When he was still living with his parents, his mom had dealt with everything involving the Christmas cards and he’d just added his name on the bottom (but when he took too long to get it done, she’d sometimes even do that for him, and look at him now! Always signing his name by himself. We love character development), and when he moved in with Renjun and Jaemin, Renjun did all the work for all three of them. 

He supposed it wasn't fair, but it wasn't like he forced his boyfriend to do it. Renjun liked doing crafts and he loved creating personalized cards for the people he cared about. Though he always grumbled about it when he ended up starting them late and in a hurry, it hadn’t been a problem before since doing something with his hands had always helped to put his mind at ease.

This year seemed to be different.

"Well, we can always buy them from the store. Problem solved," Jaemin grinned as he offered them a simple solution. 

"We are not sending any store-bought Christmas cards to our families and friends, and that is final,” Renjun said sternly. “Do you have any idea how impersonal that is? None of those will make it past me without getting ripped in half! You do not half-ass Christmas, you freaking chimpanzees!" 

Maybe they should be more surprised about the fact that Renjun just called them chimpanzees out of frustration rather than his sudden threats, but oh well. 

"I just want them to have something from all three of us, why is that so hard to understand? This relationship should be more than just me and a bunch of random names thrown in the card."

"Yeah, but I don't think sending our faces will make that much of a difference. Why would you think people need a reminder of what we look like? Like, have you ever even seen us?"

"I'm not falling for that," Renjun warned with a hard glare. "You're just fishing for compliments and I won't give you any till you agree to take the pictures." Jaemin whined in complaint, stomping his feet like a little kid throwing a tantrum. "Whatever. We'll have to discuss the day that’ll work for all of us after I get back from work."

"Have a joyful day!" Jeno wished him as he rushed out of the door. Jaemin snickered as Renjun flipped him off with all the merry feelings he could muster. 

_Shit_ , _he_ _was_ _so_ _late_. 

"Hurry up," Jaemin groaned as Jeno locked their car with much difficulty. 

He was still a bit drowsy from the nap they’d taken, and if Jaemin hadn't fallen off the couch when he did, they would've been late from picking up Renjun after his shift ended.

They briskly walked inside the mall, hoping Renjun wasn’t already done changing. Jeno could barely keep up with his younger boyfriend since Jaemin was very intent on catching Renjun in his work attire that he claimed was ' _so_ _fucking_ cute _that_ _he_ _couldn't_ _miss_ _the_ _opportunity_ '.

Jaemin was practically buzzing when they finally found the small stage in the middle of the mall, watching Renjun stand by the man dressed as Santa, directing the kids when it was their turn to go greet the old man while clad in his cute elf outfit to fit the season. He was, for the hours he worked at least, Santa's little helper after all.

They waved at him like crazy every time he turned towards their direction, grinning like idiots when Renjun finally looked over and saw them there, making a face at them before smiling at the customers again. 

Renjun didn't hate working as an elf since he was literally helping parents to feed their kids the whole 'Santa is real' agenda and actualized the fantasy with the help of his co-workers, but he did not appreciate Jeno and Jaemin always coming over, cooing at him and taking pictures so they could tease him for it later.

After he was given his break, he marched over to them with a very clear idea of what he was going to say, but the annoyance he felt vaporized in thin air the closer he got as he finally remembered why they were there in the first place. Or rather, why they shouldn't.

"Didn't you get the text? I'll have to work late today because one of the other elves got sick and they couldn't find a replacement on such short notice."

"Huh," Jeno wondered out loud and took out his phone. Low and behold, the text was there. If they hadn't been in such a hurry, maybe they would've seen it before they left. 

Oh well. Jaemin was sated just by seeing Renjun work with the kids, and Jeno supposed he was too. It wasn't that often they could see Renjun dressed up so cutely if it wasn't for Halloween or the cold days he wore the oversized hoodies with sweater paws after all.

"I guess we have some time to kill then. Maybe we'll just watch you till you're done." 

Renjun crossed his arms and raised a brow. Over his dead body, thank you very much. 

"Come on, little elf. Aren't you supposed to be joyful at all times?"

Renjun cast Jaemin a glare, about to open his mouth and tell him exactly where to shove all his little comments, when he was interrupted by a hand pulling on his clothes. It was a little boy, looking no older than five, with a little red Christmas hat sitting on top of his head. Jaemin cooed out loud at his chubby cheeks. 

"Yes?" Renjun asked the little kid as he bent down to hear him better, ignoring his boyfriends’ comments about him already being the kid’s height.

"I– I lost my mommy," the kid mumbled with tears in his eyes. 

Renjun couldn't help but to feel bad for him. It was clear he was very frightened by the incident and there was literally no reason for him not to help him out, dressed as an elf or not.

"Don't worry, I'll help you find them. Come with me and we'll go to the security guards and ask them to call your parents. They have free Christmas cookies, too! Would you want to go grab one?"

The boy nodded. Renjun gave him a kind smile and offered him his hand that the boy immediately took. He gave a small shrug to his boyfriends, both of them shooing him off and telling him they'd be fine, they'd figure out how to spend their time, before walking away. The moment he was out of earshot, Jaemin started his rambling.

"Renjun's so cute when he helps kids dressed as an elf. I just want to put him in my pocket and cuddle him so much that my arms will fall off."

"He'll hit you," Jeno warned. 

"A small price to pay for getting to coddle him. Renjun hits like a tiny person anyway."

"Hard and unrelenting?"

"Yup. Definitely hard enough to cause a concussion."

"Still won't stop you,” Jeno stated knowingly.

"Nope," Jaemin said with a popping 'p', grinning from ear to ear. “Definitely not.”

Jeno sighed, wondering how did he ever end up with two boyfriends that were both so stubborn. Not that he wouldn't do the same despite Renjun being perfectly capable of killing someone with his bare hands.

"He could probably beat a burglar with just his pinky. I have no idea where he stores all his power in that tiny, tiny body."

"I bet it's his hair."

Jeno groaned, “Jesus, he’s not a troll, Jaemin. He’s our boyfriend.”

"Well, he could be!” the younger whined. “We don’t know everything. And all the mean girls have great hair!”

“You-” Jeno stopped himself with a sigh, shaking his head. "The way your mind works at times is truly phenomenal, you know that right?"

Jaemin flashed him a shit-eating grin, "Look at you using big words, Jeno. I'm proud."

"Get lost."

As anyone could've predicted, Renjun was good at eventually getting them to give in even without having to rely on the threats concerning their private fun time (a powerful tool he’d used back when Jaemin and Jeno were both too cowardly to confront their problems, ending up making things way worse for all three of them rather than solving them right from the start and Renjun had had enough with their bullshit. There's honestly nothing more frightening than a mad Renjun for them in this world).

Either way, it was only three days later that Jeno and Jaemin were changing their outfits in the backroom of the studio they were getting their Christmas pictures taken at. Renjun himself was running a bit late as he had to wrap up his shift with the mall Santa first, and Jeno and Jaemin were still trying to wonder if they really knew what they were signing up for.

Jeno sighed as he looked at his reflection. He knew that Renjun meant it when he said the shoot was Christmas themed, but he never expected them to actually have to dress up like this; Being a Santa wasn't exactly what he had had in mind when he woke up that morning, determined to just go through with it. 

He gave a glance at Jaemin, who had yet to put on his costume. Jeno sighed, "Come on, let's just do it. It's not too much of a bother anyway, and it'll make him really happy."

Jaemin scrunched his face, "Fine. But we're never telling anyone I dressed up as Mrs. Claus."

"We're sending these cards to people, Jaemin."

"All right, fine. But no one in our friend group needs to know."

"They will get their cards, and Doyoung with his friends will see them for sure as well. If I don't send him one, he'll cry me a river."

"And the rest of the world?"

"Not even a word will get out."

"Good."

After Jaemin finally agreed to get into his costume, Jeno helped him to zip it up. They made sure they at least looked presentable because as ridiculous they thought they looked, they might as well look their best for the occasion. 

"I don't know why you were so against this anyway," Jeno said as he adjusted his big, black Santa belt. "Usually you're the one that comes up with stuff like this." 

Jaemin jutted out his lower lip, pouting in pure self-pity, "Exactly. I should've come up with this first, but I didn't and now Renjun's basking in my glory."

Jeno snorted at the ridiculousness of it, "I swear sometimes you two are just too much for me to handle."

"But you love us anyway."

"Yeah, I guess I do."

"I'm here! I'm here," Renjun shouted as he came rushing through the doors, already pulling off his work costume.

"You're changing?"

Renjun spared a second to cut him a glare, "I'm not going to take a picture looking like a cheap mall elf that gets paid too little for his efforts in our precious Christmas cards. Please. I have _some_ dignity left."

Renjun couldn't help smiling at the card he had placed on the fridge next to the old picture of them in Disneyland. "It's cute," he decided, not accepting any arguments.

Okay, so maybe dressing up as Santa, Mrs. Claus and an elf didn't exactly bring out their best vibe since that would definitely make Renjun a homewrecker, but they were definitely cute and Christmass-y, so it would have to do for now. 

They were the only costumes available at that time anyway, so he couldn’t exactly do anything about it. Renjun was sure Jeno's mother would love it anyway and call them right away to gush about how cute they look.

"It's nice," Jaemin admitted, having gotten over his petty jealousy. "Not our best picture but I'll give it a 8/10. A bonus point for matching the theme."

Renjun gave his shoulder a little punch. "Shut up. We look fabulous and that's that. Stop being a petty brat." 

Jaemin just stuck out his tongue and avoided the hand flying in his direction. Renjun decided to stop bothering his boyfriend after he took cover behind Jeno's amused but strong, muscled back, and turned back to admire the picture on the fridge instead, letting out a regretful sigh. 

"If only I had managed to convince you two to do it the last few Christmasses too, so we'd have memories of every Christmas we've spent together. Like a chronological series of Christmas pictures where we just fool around and have fun."

They fell into silence, all of them thinking about it. A beat later Jeno perked up, "Well, I mean, I have a camera."

"And we still have the costumes," Jaemin added.

"But what about the background? I'm not posing in front of a dull, gray wall or our messy kitchen."

"You're a crafty man, I’m sure we can make this work. You plan, we help. Nothing is more special than homemade things, right?"

Renjun stared at them, eyes wide as he took in their expressions. "Are you serious? Are you really willing to do this for me? Like, you're not kidding me right?" They both shook their heads. Renjun visibly brightened up at that, clasping his hands together in glee, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to work! I have so many ideas already. Oh, and I need to do a little shopping. Wanna come with? To help me carry everything?"

Jeno and Jaemin shared a worried look. Their suggestion or not, Renjun could be scary when put in charge of things. They really hoped they wouldn't end up regretting this decision. 

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay."

All three of them stood in front of a mirror, looking at their outfits with a hint of hesitance. 

Renjun was wearing a green sweater with obnoxiously sparkly lines to make him shine like a lit-up Christmas tree, Jeno had a Rudolph onesie and his nose was colored red though they all think he could just pass as a drunk college student, and Jaemin was... well, Jaemin was a squirrel by his own choice, his face painted and a tail attached to the back of his pants.

It was an uncoordinated mess from top to bottom and Renjun was seriously starting to wonder just what they were doing with their lives. He also considered changing into his fox costume and have them all dressed up as animals instead of him looking like a gay fairy had just barfed on him, but shrugged it off, figuring at least one of them should look cringey enough. 

"We're going to know these are fake all our lives," Renjun pointed out with a resigned sigh as they walked in front of the camera.

Jaemin shrugged, "Who cares? We're doing this for ourselves. Or for you if we're more precise, and who could possibly resist your charms?" Renjun couldn't help the small smile tugging on his lips when he saw him wink at him. 

"Who's going to know the difference anyway? It's not like they can ask without sounding awkward or rude," Jeno assured. 

"Yeah, and if they do, we'll just keep it a secret and tell them we have no idea what they're talking about."

"Right. Well, when I'm 80 and suffer from amnesia, I'll get completely fooled anyway, so I guess that'll do."

Jeno snorted, dragging the cable release towards them to make it easier for them to take the pictures. They didn't want to just take one and then have to run there to press it on again; they wanted the whole process of messy photos. 

"Besides, I have a great idea on how to make this shoot a bit too spicy to show others," Jaemin commented off-handedly when Jeno finished setting things up, snapping a few test shots before they’d get started. 

"I'm not getting naked for a Christmas card," Renjun immediately refused.

"Fine. I'm just going to kiss you till you flush all red and you have lipstick all over your face."

"Oka– Wait what?"

That's about all the warning Renjun got before he felt Jeno smooch his face and something wet was left on his cheek. When he turned his head towards his boyfriend, he saw his lips were painted red with the same lipstick his nose was drawn with.

"When did you–" He was startled out of his thoughts when he felt another smooch on his other cheek, whipping his head around to see a grinning Jaemin wearing his red lipstick as well. 

"Betrayed. I feel so betrayed. Both of you have lipstick on and look fine as hell, and no one warned me to do the same! A disgusting betrayal. I will never forgive you two for playing me like this."

"Now, now, honey. Pose for the camera and stay pretty as always, or this whole thing just won't work."

Still feeling mad, causing his face to naturally turn all pouty, Renjun faced the camera just as the shutter went off. It was apparently enough for his two boyfriends to latch their lips on him again, intending to make Jaemin's threatening words real and leave him all red and embarrassed. 

He could hear the camera go off in the distance while trying to fight against the red-painted lips, but after a while he just couldn't stop laughing. They were tickling him, forcing him to give in and just let them paint his face with theirs.

Renjun couldn't believe they were deliberately ruining the master plan they’d worked so hard for. They still had another setting and new clothes to change into in order for them to pull this rouse perfectly and create the illusion of different Christmases, but they’d just gone and ruined it now. Everyone would see his lipstick-stained face was the same as in the other picture. So much for that plan!

But Renjun couldn't stay mad at them and dampen the mood. The hell with it, they could take that picture whenever they wanted and no one would ever know besides them. He could humor them for this once and then nag at them later ("I still have work tomorrow and if I don't get this stuff out of my face before then, you two are going to be in so much trouble, I swear!").

It was two weeks later that they finally got the developed pictures through the mail. Jeno and Jaemin weren't home when Renjun opened them, too anxious to wait for them, fingers itching to look them through. 

The pictures sure were something. A whole mess, he'd say, shaking his head with a fond smile spreading on his lips. He’d been content with the picture they took in the actual studio, with Renjun paying for it all of course, but when his eyes stopped on a certain photo in the stack, he knew it was exactly the one he was going to put on their fridge instead of that one. 

Jeno was half-way into tackling him on the floor, ready to tickle him breathless, his lips forming an exaggerated kiss that was inches away from his cheek. He himself was laughing and pushing his head away, face full of red lip marks after the two of them kept applying more and more lipstick on his face before just going 'screw it' and outright drawing on his face. Jaemin was looking at them both with that face full of love, a wide, toothy smile on his lips. 

It would've been even more adorable without the ridiculous clothes that made them look like drunk idiots on Halloween, but Renjun didn't care. It was perfect.

He grabbed his black marker and scribbled his note behind the photo before he stood up, attaching it on the door of the fridge with the purple magnets that had little sparkly hearts on them. He let himself admire it in the silence for a while, heart swelling with the love he had for the boys. He was really lucky to have met them both, and he was going to make sure they both knew that. 

' _Renjun_ , _Jaemin_ _and_ _Jeno_ _-_ _the_ _three_ _idiots_ _creating_ _a_ _Christmas_ _card_.

 _I_ _love_ _you_ _♡_ _-_ _R_ '

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays folks! Hope you enjoyed my little Christmas themed one-shot ♡
> 
> (find me on [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/ririwrites) | [twt](https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=ririwritesaus))


End file.
